


undead-ish

by liliumregxle



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombieland Saga, Cuddling & Snuggling, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Polythieves (Persona 5), Sharing Body Heat, Sort of? - Freeform, im not proud of this so i might delete later lol, mishima is the kotaro of the au, rated teen for slight descriptions of violence, sort of not all of the thieves included its just the boys, was rewatching zombieland saga and this happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:47:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24073942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liliumregxle/pseuds/liliumregxle
Summary: Akira, Ryuji, and Yusuke talk about their current situation, think about their pasts, and mess around with dermal pads. Akechi's there too.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kitagawa Yusuke/Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji, Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji/Kitagawa Yusuke/Akechi Goro
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	undead-ish

**Author's Note:**

> i HIGHLY recommend watching zombieland saga before you read this, itll help you understand the plot lol. fic takes place in 2018, as thats when zombieland saga takes place.  
> for context, here's short character summaries:
> 
> akira: born 1995, died 2012 at 17; can't remember his death or his past, only his name. the sakura of the au, essentially.  
> ryuji: born 1980, died 1997 at 17; was part of a biker gang. essentially the saki of the au  
> yusuke: born 1865, died 1882 at 17 years old; apprentice of a famous artist of the meiji period. although he's from the furthest back time period, he's too focused on his art to be phased by how the world changed.  
> akechi: unknown birthdate and deathdate. still hasn't "awoken" from his zombie state like the others have at this time, so he essentially acts like a normal zombie. however he is still somewhat conscious and can recognize when he's being talked to. when he wakes up the personality switch is a big shock lol. essentially the tae of the au
> 
> stuff like the dermal pads and akechi enjoying biting/chewing on makoto are references to parts of zombieland saga hehe. i chose akechi as the "tae" of the au because the idea is so funny to me

“What are they?”

“Dermal pads, apparently,” Ann says, scratching at a scar on her face while Akira stares down at the half-empty box, packs stacked carefully. “Makoto says they’re supposed to help with muscle pain, and stuff. Mishima got them as a gift from that pharmaceutical company we did a gig for.”

“Sweet!” Ryuji shouts, clambering over and stealing a pack from the box. “You’d think that since we’re dead we wouldn’t feel pain, but damn, my back’s been killin’ me,” He mutters, squinting his eyes as he reads the text on the back of the pack.

Ann just snorts, pushing a stray piece of hair out of her face. She has it down instead of in her signature ponytails, and the blonde locks are a striking comparison to the fact that her face is pale green and marred with stitches and scars. Still, Akira himself didn’t look any better- he’d nearly passed out from shock when he saw his own face, dark green and rotting. It didn’t help that, upon closer inspection, he’d realized he had a literal _gunshot wound_ , which he had no memory of obtaining, smack dab in the middle of his forehead, hidden by his messy bangs.

“Me and the other girls already took some, so you guys can use whatever’s left,” Ann explains, turning around to head out the door of the boys’ room, “Don’t be too loud. I know it’s a crazy thought, but there’s other people trying to sleep in this place.” She mutters, disappearing out the door.

“Oi! We’re not that bad!” Ryuji shouts down the hall in response. He huffs, grabbing the box out of Akira’s hand and walking to the center of the room, where all the boys have situated their futons together. He drops the box in the center of the futons, eliciting a loud thump as it hits the ground.

The sound manages to startle Yusuke out of his focus, who’s been quietly sketching this entire time, but Akechi, who’s laying face down on the futon, looking like a corpse- haha, zombie joke- doesn’t react at all, which is unsurprising.

Sitting down beside Ryuji, Akira stares at the brunette. Truthfully, Akechi was extremely interesting to Akira- while everyone else had woken up from their zombie-like state, and more or less acted like normal humans, Akechi was still acting like a normal zombie, grunting and groaning and biting people.

It was an extremely confusing case, because it seemed like anyone could wake up from the zombie state if given enough stimulation, but in the three months they’ve been together working as an idol group, Akechi was still… not awake.

It wasn’t like the brunette boy was braindead, though- Akechi could recognize when people were talking to him, as well as recognize names, and given enough time and communication, he would do what you wanted him to do, it just took a lot of patience. He could speak to a degree- though his words were usually simple and slurred together- and he seemed to develop real fondness for those around him, given enough time.

In particular, Akechi had two people he was “fond” of. One was Akira, who he seemed to listen to with the least prompting, most likely because Akira spent the most time helping him train due to both his curiosity in Akechi and his patience for the zombie boy. Oftentimes Akechi would trail behind Akira, and while originally Akira found it somewhat creepy and strange, now he found it endearing, like a puppy trailing behind it’s owner. Akira truly felt like, to a degree, he had established a relationship with the boy despite his state, and it was a fact he prided himself on.

The other person Akechi had a “fondness” for, if that was even the right word, was Makoto, who he seemed to, for no apparent reason, enjoy chewing on, biting, and tormenting. Because of that, Makoto didn’t exactly enjoy being alone around Akechi, because it usually ended up with Makoto trying to pry Akechi off of one of her limbs.

Even still, Makoto herself was still somewhat curious about Akechi’s state, and Akira had exchanged theories with her on why the boy was still the way he was, or why Mishima had chosen Akechi, because their “producer” refused to reveal Akechi’s history, if he knew anything about it at all.

Akira is immediately brought out of his thoughts when Ryuji, out of nowhere, lifts up his pyjama shirt and slaps a dermal pad onto the small of his back.

Akira lets out a startled yelp, and Ryuji loudly laughs, Yusuke watching in the background. The blue haired boy looks down at one of the packs, raising an eyebrow.

“The text here says that applying these to others is considering practicing medicine. Should you be doing that?” Yusuke asks, looking up at Ryuji.

Ryuji just snorts, peeling the plastic backing off of a pad, “What, are the police gonna arrest a zombie? C’mon, let me do you, Yusuke!”

In a swift movement, Ryuji leaps at Yusuke, and the bluenette’s eyes widen in surprise. Yusuke scrambles desperately in an attempt to get away.

Akira watches in amusement as Ryuji chases Yusuke around the room, but jumps in surprise as he feels a hand on his back. Turning around in surprise, Akira sees none other than Akechi prodding at the pad sticking to the black haired boy’s skin.

“Hey, you’re up,” Akira greets.

“Graaghg,” Akechi replies, eloquent as ever.

The brunette continues poking at the thing. His brows furrow in confusion, and Akira even senses concern from the boy as his bandage-covered hands try to pull the pad off of Akira’s back.

“Hey, no,” Akira says quietly, pulling Akechi’s hands away, “it’s supposed to be there. It feels good,” He explains, and is struck with an idea.

“Wanna try one?” Akira asks, smiling. Akechi simply cocks his head in response.

Taking that as the best approval he’s going to get, Akira pulls out one of the packs and removes the pad carefully. Gesturing for Akechi to move closer, he peels the protective plastic off of the pad.

“What are you doing?” Ryuji questions, hovering over the two, seemingly done bothering Yusuke for the night. Out of the corner of his eye, Akira sees Yusuke grimacing as he reattaches his hand to his arm, correcting the bandages and muttering something about how Ryuji better  
not have “ruined his artist hands”.

“Trying to put one on Akechi,” Akira grunts, wrapping his arms around Akechi in an attempt to reach at the zombie’s back, “mind helping?”

Ryuji nods, reaching down and pushing up the brunette’s shirt. Akechi grunts in surprise, and Akira places the pad in the same place Ryuji put his, on the small of his back.

The pad securely in place, Akira backs away, chuckling as Akechi strains his neck to try and look at it.

“What a splendid pose,” Yusuke mutters, sketchbook back in hand, “Akechi, you must stay like that.”

Akechi grunts, instead deciding to flop down across Akira’s lap. “Kk’ra,” he groans, going limp across the black haired boy.

“Wow, no fair,” Ryuji mumbles, “why’s he get your lap?”

Akira snorts. “You try and get him off,” he invites, gesturing at the brunette. “He’ll probably just gnaw your hand off.”

Ryuji huffs, sitting down on his futon and crossing his legs, placing his chin on his hand and staring at Akechi. While Ryuji’s loyal, positive, and excitable demeanor tend to hide his background, it’s in these moments he looks like a true bōsōzoku member, his resting face somewhat dark and serious.

As rain patters against the window and they sit in comfortable silence, Akira glances down at Akechi, placing his hand on top of the boy’s head, stroking at his hair. Akechi seems to like it, a low rumbling emerging from the boy, and Akira can hardly contain the quiet giggle that comes from his lips.

Ryuji’s face shifts to a smile as he watches the two. “You guys ever think about how weird this is?” The blonde asks, leaning back and falling onto his futon with a thump. “If you ever told me I’d be, one, workin’ as a damn idol, and two, I’d also be a zombie while bein’ an idol, I would not have believed you,” he mutters, staring at the ceiling. “I’d probably would’ve punched you in the face, too, though.”

Yusuke shifts, tapping his pencil to his chin. “I do feel someone grateful for our situation, though,” the boy says, “from what we know, a majority of our deaths… they were the fault of someone else. We’ve been given another chance at life, even if the circumstances are somewhat strange.”

At that comment, Akira reaches up, fingers brushing against the wound on his forehead from his life before a zombie. Everyone else in the group could remember their pasts, and their deaths, as well. Yusuke had been stabbed in the back, literally, when he had tried to speak out against his mentor’s plagiarism. Ryuji, in possibly the most gruesome of the group’s deaths, had been beaten to death by a teacher at his school.

Sometimes, Akira felt glad that he couldn’t remember his death. Imagining being able to recall the moments before you finally gave out, especially if it was in the case of someone like Ryuji, or Haru, who had been strangled by her fiance, it was terrifying.

But his lack of memories also gave Akira a lack of identity. Sometimes, he would sit awake at night, wondering about who he was, what caused his death. On nights where his anxiety got the better of him, he’d often worry that, perhaps, he’d been a criminal, and that’s why he had the singular bullet wound in his forehead, that the world was finally taking out a bad person.

He often wondered if that was why he connected with Akechi so much- after all, the boy was a mystery as well.

Akira’s startled out of his thoughts when a thunderclap roars outside, and almost immediately after, the lights of the boy’s room going out.

Though muffled, he can hear Makoto shout from the other room, and the girls clambering around. Sighing, he looks down at Akechi as his eyes adjust to the dark.

“Guess that’s our signal to go to sleep,” he mutters, “Better than Morgana coming to do it.”

Ryuji jumps at the mention of the name. “Damn, I forgot about that shitty zombie cat,” he curses, scrambling over to Akira’s side, “c’mon, let’s get to sleep before he finds us awake.”

Akira blinks at the boy as he positions himself right beside Akira, sprawling out beside the black haired boy. “What are you doing?”

“I’m not lettin’ Akechi be the only one who gets to sleep with you,” he grumbles, “Plus, if the power’s out, the heat’ll be out too. We can, huddle for warmth, or whatever.”

“Ryuji, we’re dead,” Akira deadpans, staring at the boy, “I don’t think it’ll matter much.”

“C’moooonnn,” the blonde whines, “Yusuke wants to huddle, too! Right, Yusuke?”

The blue-haired boy sighs. “If you’re going to be so insistent about it, then just call it cuddling, Ryuji,” he mutters, brushing the hair out of his eyes as he moves to lay down beside the blonde. “It’s not as though we haven’t all slept together like this before.”

“Cuddlin’ isn’t manly, though,” Ryuji mutters, raising the blanket of the futon so Yusuke can slip in beside him. “My gang’d kill me if they heard me saying shit like “cuddling”.”

Akira goes to make a sarcastic comment, but is interrupted by Akechi’s hand smacking him on the face. When he looks down, Akechi simply groans out, “C’dle.”

“See! Even Akechi’s on board, man! It’s 3 against 1!” Ryuji says.

Akira finally succumbs to Akechi and Ryuji’s insistence, sighing as he maneuvers Akechi to lay on the futon. Akechi burrows under the blanket almost immediately, seeking the warmth. Akira fits himself carefully between the brunette and Ryuji, and Akechi attaches to the fellow zombie.

Almost comically fast, he can hear Akechi start to snore, and a thought hits him.

“Do you think we should’ve taken the dermal pads off?”

“Eh,” Ryuji says, blindly grabbing for Akira’s hands under the blankets, “Not like it’ll do anything to us. We’re dead already.”

**Author's Note:**

> if there's enough interest in this i might make a series out of it. this was rushed and dumb so.


End file.
